The Chain That Binds Us All
by Mira Black
Summary: Remus keeps having the same recurring nightmare. The same screams fill his mind, "SIRIUS! SIRIUS!". Memories flash like seconds, and he finds a way to cope. NEEDS REVIEWS TO CONTINUE!... (Post- OotP spoilers RLSB)
1. First Link

_Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters.... Unless... I am secretly J.K. Rowling.... DUNDUNDUN! XD_

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Hello everyone! Once again I have started another HP fic despite the fact I have other fics still waiting for an update --" I have update issues, seriously. Well, I was just lying in bed, when this idea struck me!! I dunno why or how but it did. This will most likely end up being a 3-5 chapter story, I just can't spend too much time on it. ;  
  
So, I hope you like this. I know I do. I was kind of sad while writing it, I just love Sirius so much and I'm still sort of depressed over his tragic end in the books. vv sigh Oh man, I think I might cry now... ;; Well, here it goes.... Hope you like it!  
  
AN: The scene I wrote is obviously changed a bit from the original in OotP page 806. I just wanted it to seem a bit more emotional and painful, because this is pretty much how I felt while I read the book for the first time. Also, I'm going to steal a quote from the PoA movie (or at least paraphrase it). I won't say which, but once you see it, you'll know which one it is.... And also, the entire story will be in Remus' point of view.

And one last thing I must mention! This story is dedicated to three special people out there #1- Athena's Wiccan wolf : for making my day everytime her most excellent fic "Embracing the Moon" was updated; #2- My best friend Stacey aka Moony, for always listening to my stories over the phone, telling me if they're good or not, and #3- Annette aka Snivellus or Snapey-Wapey, just for being the Harry Potter freak that you are and listening to my rants for hours at a time...

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**The Chain That Binds Us All**   
  
"SIRIUS!" Harry screamed when Bellatrix's jet of red light made contact, "SIRIUS! SIRIUS!"  
  
I saw it too and took in a breath sharply. His body curved in a graceful arch and for that moment, time stood still. It seemed as if everything stopped , and the room fell deafeningly silent.... except for one thing.... My heart, or maybe it was Sirius', I wasn't really sure, but I heard it beating.  
  
That was all I could hear, _ba-dump_ ringing, _ba-dump _pounding in my ears. In that one eternal moment all my experiences with Sirius flashed before my eyes: the first time we met on the train, the day he told me he knew about my lycanthropy, the day we graduated from Hogwarts, and... The first time he said, "I love you, Remus." I blinked, and the image of Sirius falling brought me back to my cruel reality.  
  
For a second, I saw his azure eyes gaze into mine. They were beautiful as always, and it always seemed as though you could read his thoughts through those orbs, but this time... I couldn't read them. I guess this was the first time Sirius was actually shocked at the turn of events. All I could do was stare at him, wishing with all my heart that I could run there and make it in time to push him away from the veil, because, I knew what would happen if he fell into it. I didn't even want to think about it.  
  
I blinked again, and saw the dying laughter in his face, and with this expression I knew what he wanted me to do : protect Harry. My arms crossed the boy's body as he struggled to go after his godfather. With all his might he thrashed against my hold, slowly weakening as he broke down into tears and at last fell to his knees mumbling, "Sirius....Sirius....". And then, the man fell through....  
  
I was speechless. "He fell through..." I muttered quietly to myself, "He fell through..."Over and over I repeated this in my head as Bellatrix triumphantly screamed. Gradually the mumbling and screaming turned into the worst headache of my life. Not only did my head hurt, but my heart as well. I closed my eyes and sighed deeply, almost letting tears escape, but then I remembered our current situation.  
  
Words of reassurance and comfort that we'd make it out of here okay were the only things I could say. And every word hurt, like each one was a little knife stabbing at my heart, but it seemed that that was my only skill at this point in time. I was barely able to cast "Finite" on Neville and remove his curse. And that was it, I ushered the kids out of the room, and glanced back at the dais one last time before....  
  
I gasped, covered in a cold sweat, "A dream... The same dream." My hand shot up to my head and pushed my sweat drenched hair back, "That's the 2nd time this week." I rolled to my side and looked at a picture placed beside my bed: Peter, James, Sirius and I in it. How could us four, end up like this so soon? We were supposed to grow old together, play pranks until we were geezers and watch each other's kids grow up and teach them the proper way to throw a dungbomb at a Slytherin while they took over our Marauder positions at Hogwarts.  
  
But this is the way it is: James and Sirius gone, and Peter, off with his "master". I was the last Marauder left, and to be completely honest, I hated it. But I had to keep my unspoken promise to James and Sirius. I'd stay here to keep an eye on Harry, make sure he became a proper man, married a proper girl and the such.  
  
The picture showed the four of us at the prime of our friendship. We were all wearing chain necklaces; Peter, James and Sirius were all wearing silver ones while mine was made of gold. They figured mine had to be gold due to the complications of being a werewolf. Sirius had gotten them for us and I can clearly remember when he handed each of us a small blue box that contained our chain. Each of us gasped like a girl smitten with diamonds when we opened them. James even joked with, "Oo... Shiny!" before we helped each other to put them on.  
  
"Mine's actually white gold..." Sirius whispered to me as he clasped mine closed around my neck, "I had to have one that was slightly similar to yours..." He smiled, "I would've gotten you one too, but yellow gold matches your eyes...." I blushed madly at that comment back in the day, but now I just grinned at the happy memory.  
  
I grabbed at my neck and felt the chain still hanging there, resting on my chest. I remembered the many times that it was Sirius' hand holding the necklace as it sat there. He always held it over my heart and would tell me that, "No matter what happens Remy, it's only flesh, remember that, the real you will always be in there..."  
  
I don't know how I could even doubt him after that. But when the whole Azkaban fiasco happened, if even for a second, I loathed Sirius Black. How could he betray us like that? He broke every pact of trust we had and I even took off the necklace, my most prized possession, and swore to never wear it again or even remember its origin for that matter. The day I ripped it off my neck was probably one of the most painful, and ever since I found out of his innocence, I haven't removed it from my body. Not once...  
  
My fingers ran along the necklace, tracing each link as a 16 year-old Sirius' voice ran through my mind, "These necklaces, my friends, will be the chain that binds us all. Forever we'll be connected, and even if a link breaks, we'll still be strong with what we have left. You may not know it, but this chain existed before we had these around our necks. It's the strongest chain of all.... Friendship."  
  
That was probably one of the most beautiful things I ever heard come out of that man's mouth. It was no wonder he became a dog when they decided to become Animagi for me. "Man's best friend" they always called dogs, and it wasn't close enough to the truth for me.  
  
Sirius could be friends with anyone. It was just amazing how he did it. We were the top of his priority list and would not only act this way, but constantly remind us of it. "I can stand bad things happening to me, but if anything would happen to you guys, especially because of me, I'd die." I think he boasted this at least once a week to us, and probably daily to me. It was odd that I never noticed his maternal sort of protection over me until 5th year, really odd indeed....  
  
_to be continued..._


	2. Second Link

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters.... Unless... I am secretly J.K. Rowling.... DUNDUNDUN! XD

Awww.... I was a little sad by the fact i only got 2 reviews for the first chap... Hopefully this gets more cuz I updated sooner!   
  
AN: I know in the books our little Slytherin friend finds out about Remus being a 'you-know-what' by seeing him in the Shrieking Shack, but I changed it so that he found out by his own cleverness. Because even though he is a jerk, Greasy Slytherins happen to be some of my fave characters in the series as well. But, I will most likely add in the bit when Severus sees Remus in the shack...

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The Chain That Binds Us All - 2nd link   
  
I always thought Sirius acted strange towards me, but I could never understand why. He must've thought I was one idiotic git the way I blew him off all those times. I was just so oblivious to the fact that he was attracted to me. I seriously thought he was just being odd. Don't get me wrong, I got the hint, but I was naive, ignorant and basically... stupid when it came to things of relationships back then. But who can you blame? I was alone for half of my adolescence, so I barely knew what a relationship was.  
  
The first time I actually remember noticing something different was around the end of our 5th year. Not only was it when I first noticed that I felt a little different towards Sirius, but also when we came up with our nicknames, or should I really say Sirius did. He was always a quick thinker, just like James, but so very unlike me. I was more of a 'sit-down and think completely and thoroughly of the consequences' kind of guy. It really made the two laugh. "Look at Remus," James would always whisper loudly to Sirius, "Thinking of what will happen if we actually get caught nicking a few things from Filch's office."  
  
Sirius would give a great, "HA! Get caught? What does that mean my dear James? I believe Remus is contemplating an impossible feat!" He then would laugh out loud, patting James on the back a bit roughly, making the both of us laugh as well. His laughs and smiles were always infectious.  
  
James was his best friend and received the fullest extent of his attention; Peter was constantly being picked on by the tall boy; And me... he always seemed to... Look out for me you could say. I could remember numerous times where Sirius jumped in to defend me, but one incident always sticks out in my mind, clear as crystal. And you can take a guess as to who the instigator was...  
  
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"SHUT UP! Just, shut up!" Sirius screamed as he held Severus up against the wall by his collar, "You think he chose to become one? You think he danced around, begging to be bitten?!"  
  
"Ah, I see I found a way to really push your buttons, Black." Severus smirked, delighted with himself that he was able to spark such rage within the Gryffindor. Sirius panted, his face hot from anger and his mind boiling with every hex he could think of. At least, that's what I thought was happening.  
  
Sirius always got engulfed in a completely different world when he got angry. His eyes were filled with such rage. The only other time I could remember his eyes like that was when he talked about his family. His wand was out, prodded into Snape's chest, he growled lowly, "You want to say anything else, Snivellus?"  
  
"Yes actually..." He hissed, "I want to tell you it's a shame that you, a pure-blood from a family with such high lineage, would be sorted into Gryffindor of all houses! It's a real shame because you might not have turned out so screwed up! Hanging out with mudbloods, muggle-loving gits and worst of all.... A werewolf!" Snape's long finger pointed at me as he yelled this.  
  
At that moment, I can't even remember what happened. It felt as if the world was tumbling, how did he know? How did he find out?! I was so careful to not let anyone find out! I could've sworn the only students who knew were James, Peter and Sirius. I fell to my knees in panic, and I could feel the people's eyes, boring into me even though there were only a few students watching. I could hear their frantic whispers, floating in my mind. I knew what they would say. It was what everyone said when they found out about, about my... abnormality, "Get him away from me! He's dangerous! He's not fit to live with normal humans."... This was what I feared most now that I knew what it was like to have friends and be around people... rejection from society. I closed my eyes and shaking, I started to whimper pathetically.  
  
Suddenly... I heard a CRACK accompanied with a moan of pain. Looking up I noticed Snape's robes were now covered in blood and a never-ending stream of crimson flowed from what looked like a completely shattered nose. "You'll pay for that you blood-traitor!" Snape wailed as he ran to the Hospital Wing. Sirius glared at the Slytherin until he completely disappeared around the corner, and then, he turned and looked at me.  
  
Shaking his hand in the air he said, "OW! That greasy bugger has one hell of a hard nose to smash..." And I just stared at him while I was on the ground, dumbfounded, speechless, completely taken aback. He then gave me a crooked sort of look before his mouth turned into a solemn little frown, "Are you going to write me up now, Remus?"  
  
"Huh, write you up?"  
  
"You're a prefect," Sirius pointed to a badge on my chest, "I believe you were supposed to stop me from beating in old Snivelly's face." He sighed, "I... Just couldn't stop myself this time. He went too far..." He looked back to where there were a few spots of blood still splattered on the stone floor. After a few moments of silence he turned back to me and smiled a little, "Sorry for overreacting, Moony...Forgive me?"  
  
"Of course I forgive you..." And finally realizing what he just said, I repeated, "Moony?"  
  
"Oh yeah," He scratched the back of his head and grinned that famous Black smile, "I came up with a nickname for you. Do you like it?" He stuck his hand out, offering his assistance to help me stand, "James and Peter both came up with a few ridiculous ones. Stuff like: Amber eyes and Luna Boy, but I insisted that those sounded way too girlie..." He pulled me up and was now helping to brush me off, "So, I blurted out 'Moony' and now James and I just can't stop using it."  
  
"Moony... I like it. So, what are you called, 'Shag Man'?" I laughed in spite of myself despite Sirius' glare to this comment.  
  
"I don't go and shag a bunch of girls, Remus. I hate it when you guys joke about me doing things like that... I may be good-looking, charming, funny and witty, but that doesn't mean I'm promiscuous."  
  
"Sorry, sorry. But, wow, that was probably the most conceited sentence I've ever heard in my entire life." I said sarcastically, "But, C'mon, mate." I pleaded, trying to make a 'puppy face', "What is your nickname?"  
  
Sirius smiled a huge grin and said, "Padfoot..."  
  
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After that I can barely remember ever using his actual name casually. I don't really think any of us did, especially when it was just us four together. But out of the four of us, I grew exceptionally fond of my name. Not because it was nice to hear something other than "Remus this" and "Remus that" for a change, but because Sirius came up with the name for me. Just that fact made me love it.  
  
Of course we'd get a bunch of odd looks when I'd scream, "PRONGS! PADFOOT! WORMTAIL!" In the halls all the time, but we found it extremely amusing when we'd hear random people mumble that we're lunatics.  
  
Those were the best times of my life. I've never experienced anything quite like the relationship I had with those 4 before. Family was always nice, but there was always something better, something more reassuring about undying friendships.  
  
I learned first-hand what Sirius meant about friendship being the strongest chain that existed. But he never told me that it was possible to make it stronger... And both luckily, and happily for me, Sirius would be my professor for that lesson...  
  
_- to be continued..._


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